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A review by bee_thebibliophile
He's a Player by Stacy Travis
3.0
I really wanted to like Tim’s story - he was fun in [b:He's a Keeper|60818515|He's a Keeper|Stacy Travis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1651088421l/60818515._SX50_.jpg|95908152] so I had high hopes for this book. Tim lived up to my expectations, but his love interest, Jordan, brought things down for me.
Tim Cheltenham is a professional soccer player who left England behind to play in the US and run away from some family problems. He’s been playing on an injury for a while and is incredibly nervous that his backup is going to take away his starting spot so he plays on it even when he shouldn’t. Tim needs surgery to fix his injury but doesn’t want to take the time off the pitch to recover so he’s relying on the goodwill from the team’s doctor to keep him playing, He has a reputation for being a bit of a player off the field, always with a new girl and never getting serious but when a certain woman from his past shows up at a team event, he can’t help imagining what a future together could look like.
Jordan Page is a sports medicine doctor who is starting a new job with the San Francisco Strikers where she’s tasked with fixing the mistakes and problems left behind by the last team doctor. She’s good at her job and knows she can make an impact but she’s also intimidated by being a woman in the professional sports world. She gets along well with her dad but her relationship with her mom is strained since all she seems to want is for Jordan to get married. Jordan was a character just wasn’t for me - she felt like a stereotypical quirky/awkward/nerdy girl with her clumsiness, social awkwardness, lack of self-confidence, frumpy clothing and refusal to hold her male co-worker accountable for his misogyny. I wanted to like her more, but she made it so difficult for me at every turn to be on her side.
Tim and Jordan have a history before they started working together - Tim stayed with her family in high school during a foreign exchange program and they both developed feelings but ended up heartbroken. They meet up again years later and they’re both still interested and end up faking an engagement to get Jordan out of a (completely unnecessary) bind with her co-worker. I felt a physical connection between these two but absolutely no emotional connection there. Things progressed fast between them and it felt really abrupt when they decided to be more than fake. I wanted more from their relationship because of their history and it just fell kind of flat.
I really like the concept of this series and I feel invested in the overhaul that’s happening. Looking forward to seeing where this series goes next!
Tim Cheltenham is a professional soccer player who left England behind to play in the US and run away from some family problems. He’s been playing on an injury for a while and is incredibly nervous that his backup is going to take away his starting spot so he plays on it even when he shouldn’t. Tim needs surgery to fix his injury but doesn’t want to take the time off the pitch to recover so he’s relying on the goodwill from the team’s doctor to keep him playing, He has a reputation for being a bit of a player off the field, always with a new girl and never getting serious but when a certain woman from his past shows up at a team event, he can’t help imagining what a future together could look like.
Jordan Page is a sports medicine doctor who is starting a new job with the San Francisco Strikers where she’s tasked with fixing the mistakes and problems left behind by the last team doctor. She’s good at her job and knows she can make an impact but she’s also intimidated by being a woman in the professional sports world. She gets along well with her dad but her relationship with her mom is strained since all she seems to want is for Jordan to get married. Jordan was a character just wasn’t for me - she felt like a stereotypical quirky/awkward/nerdy girl with her clumsiness, social awkwardness, lack of self-confidence, frumpy clothing and refusal to hold her male co-worker accountable for his misogyny. I wanted to like her more, but she made it so difficult for me at every turn to be on her side.
Tim and Jordan have a history before they started working together - Tim stayed with her family in high school during a foreign exchange program and they both developed feelings but ended up heartbroken. They meet up again years later and they’re both still interested and end up faking an engagement to get Jordan out of a (completely unnecessary) bind with her co-worker. I felt a physical connection between these two but absolutely no emotional connection there. Things progressed fast between them and it felt really abrupt when they decided to be more than fake. I wanted more from their relationship because of their history and it just fell kind of flat.
I really like the concept of this series and I feel invested in the overhaul that’s happening. Looking forward to seeing where this series goes next!